Clergy Divided Over Wisdom Of Biblical License Plates

Driving around recently, Lawrence Lewis recalls, he saw a car with what many people might consider the ultimate in personalized license plates: JESUS.

"I've also seen one that said LORD," Lewis says.

Lewis, pastor of New Life Church, an interdenominational Christian congregation in Newport News, thought it was a clever way for those drivers to show they are moved by more than just the power of a four-, six- or eight-cylinder engine.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Saturday, October 21, 1989. An article incorrectly stated that license plates carrying personal messages could be obtained from the state Department of Motor Vehicles for a one-time fee of $10. Such plates cost $10 per year, in addition to the regular annual registration fee.

Like names and slogans, Biblical references are permissible on Virginia license plates, as long as the car owner doesn't mind paying a one-time $10 fee in addition to the annual cost of car registration. The only restrictions, says Jeanie Chenault, public information officer for the Department of Motor Vehicles, are on direct references to deities (GOD, ALLAH and BUDDHA can't be used, for example), drug culture (I BUY POT won't make it) and profanity. The state Supreme Court also has ruled that ATHEIST cannot be imprinted on tags.

The plates Lewis saw could have been from North Carolina, which has no such statute and which has issued those licenses. Drivers in Hampton Roads have seen cars with Virginia plates that say JOHN 3 16 (For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son...), JSHUA 1 8 (This book of the law must ever be on your lips ...) and other Biblical citations.

"It's a way people like to express their faith and belief," says Lewis. "The purpose is to get people to look up the passage and see what it says. It has a positive aspect to it."

"If it's a reminder for the person to follow what's on the license plate, it may be good," agrees the Rev. Peter Makris, pastor of Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Newport News.

"A lot of dumb things appear on license plates," says the Rev. Simon Kenny, assistant pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Newport News. "Scripture is not such a bad idea."

But some members of the Peninsula's religious community do lump it in the category of bad ideas.

"I'm not swayed about how much of an impression it makes on people," says the Rev. Michael Condrey, pastor of Kirkwood Presbyterian Church in Tabb. "I don't think it does that much good. I can make a case that it's a misuse of Scripture."

Worse, says Rabbi Mark Golub, spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Newport News, "They trivialize the significance of what the Bible verse means. To me, religious pronouncements belong in a place where people can enjoy or be inspired and learn from them."

Condrey doesn't put down motorists who try to use their car as a mobile pulpit. "You may look at it, and I may think that it's tacky," he says, "but they're dead serious. You see them at ballgames, too: people standing up, holding cards that say John 3:16.

"They think it's effective, but it can backfire, too. People who don't like it could say that all religious people are like that."